I've been making my way through the back of my rack, exploring the razors I keep but just can't find regular time to shave with. I give each one a few shaves and move on to the next. This time around, I went to a place that I haven't visited in a long time: the twin-blade cartridge shaving world.
[cue ominous fanfare]
Yeah, I know. It's an oldy cart razor. Have I gone a bit bananas?
Nope. Truth is that I got acceptable shaves from 2-blade cart razors for most of my life... even shaving totally dry with them when the need arose. My pop used to shave with a Wilkinson Bonded, and my very first shave was a 2-blader. My own first razor was a Super ][, so it's not an alien format for me. The Atra and the Sensor were my main tools for some 20 years until my M3 and Fusion came in the mail.
After awhile, I came around to DEs and wet shaving, but I kept my eye out for one of those metal Atra handles, and scouted for blades. I got the handle about a year ago, after spending some time waiting for the right one on the 'bay. It's pretty nice. Plenty grippy in wet-handling situations, with more heft than I remember from the Sensor or the other plastic Atra handles. The cart tilts up and down a bit, but it's not too big, and it's easy to move around in the hand.
For blades, I've had terrible luck with Personnas (enough to make me put this handle away so long ago!), but on a lark (a few weeks back) as I was picking up some fresh GEM SE blades at Walgreens (for my back-of-the-rack tour of the Kampfe lather-catcher), I snatched up some Gillette-branded carts suitable for Atra and Sensor... the ones with the white lube strip. Tonight, I popped one onto the handle and gave it a go.
So, how was the shave?
You know, it's a darn good shave. Better than the M3. DFS in three passes. The strip lets the cart pass without binding on lather-free zones, and that helps with overlapping strokes and touch-ups. Yes, you do have to use a bit of pressure, and I found myself sticking my tongue in my cheeks (like I normally do with straights) to get better purchase for the blades. All the same, I'm very smooth after those three passes, and haven't a whit of irritation anywhere -- not even around the neck where I have to be extra careful with the DE.
One of my main complaints with the multi-blade carts has been how they clog and require that I bang on them to unstick the gap between the blades. There's also the problem with getting a clean rinse. I pretty much observed the same conditions with the Gillette-branded cart, so not much has changed. Still, I'm pretty smooth, and my technique adapted very well. (I'll chalk that up to muscle memory.) I can say that using the Atra with handmade T&H 1805 lather beats the performance I used to get with the canned Barbasol that was my regular cream, though... by a mile.
Overall, my sentiments are favorable, and it goes to show that you can have a really nice wet shaving shaving experience in "twin-blade cart world" as easy as you can with a DE. I know that some of us tend to defer to single bladed options when we deliver our opinions around here, but it should serve as a good reminder (and good news to anyone new to wet shaving) that you can still get decent shaving edges in the 2-blade cart format and get good results.
I'm looking forward to another couple decent shaves with the Atra ... unless the Joris lands here in that timeframe, which'll mean that the Atra will have to take a break for a bit.
Some pics, for your edification ...
-- Chet
[cue ominous fanfare]
Yeah, I know. It's an oldy cart razor. Have I gone a bit bananas?
Nope. Truth is that I got acceptable shaves from 2-blade cart razors for most of my life... even shaving totally dry with them when the need arose. My pop used to shave with a Wilkinson Bonded, and my very first shave was a 2-blader. My own first razor was a Super ][, so it's not an alien format for me. The Atra and the Sensor were my main tools for some 20 years until my M3 and Fusion came in the mail.
After awhile, I came around to DEs and wet shaving, but I kept my eye out for one of those metal Atra handles, and scouted for blades. I got the handle about a year ago, after spending some time waiting for the right one on the 'bay. It's pretty nice. Plenty grippy in wet-handling situations, with more heft than I remember from the Sensor or the other plastic Atra handles. The cart tilts up and down a bit, but it's not too big, and it's easy to move around in the hand.
For blades, I've had terrible luck with Personnas (enough to make me put this handle away so long ago!), but on a lark (a few weeks back) as I was picking up some fresh GEM SE blades at Walgreens (for my back-of-the-rack tour of the Kampfe lather-catcher), I snatched up some Gillette-branded carts suitable for Atra and Sensor... the ones with the white lube strip. Tonight, I popped one onto the handle and gave it a go.
So, how was the shave?
You know, it's a darn good shave. Better than the M3. DFS in three passes. The strip lets the cart pass without binding on lather-free zones, and that helps with overlapping strokes and touch-ups. Yes, you do have to use a bit of pressure, and I found myself sticking my tongue in my cheeks (like I normally do with straights) to get better purchase for the blades. All the same, I'm very smooth after those three passes, and haven't a whit of irritation anywhere -- not even around the neck where I have to be extra careful with the DE.
One of my main complaints with the multi-blade carts has been how they clog and require that I bang on them to unstick the gap between the blades. There's also the problem with getting a clean rinse. I pretty much observed the same conditions with the Gillette-branded cart, so not much has changed. Still, I'm pretty smooth, and my technique adapted very well. (I'll chalk that up to muscle memory.) I can say that using the Atra with handmade T&H 1805 lather beats the performance I used to get with the canned Barbasol that was my regular cream, though... by a mile.
Overall, my sentiments are favorable, and it goes to show that you can have a really nice wet shaving shaving experience in "twin-blade cart world" as easy as you can with a DE. I know that some of us tend to defer to single bladed options when we deliver our opinions around here, but it should serve as a good reminder (and good news to anyone new to wet shaving) that you can still get decent shaving edges in the 2-blade cart format and get good results.
I'm looking forward to another couple decent shaves with the Atra ... unless the Joris lands here in that timeframe, which'll mean that the Atra will have to take a break for a bit.
Some pics, for your edification ...
-- Chet
